Today ARK: Survival Evolved got a brand new update for the PC. Revealed today on the Steam Community page the update adds a bit for the players in game but adds a more to the back end of the official game servers. ARK: Survival Evolved is currently available for PC on Steam Early Access and Xbox in Game Preview, although this patch isn't live there.
The new dinosaur is called the Haementeria, and it is a blood sucking slug that you don't want to run into. It is a passive-aggressive creature that will latch onto you with a moments notice. Once it is attached it will begin to take down your health as well as speeding up your hunger and taking away your stamina. If you wanna get it off you someone will have to help with a knife or an open flame, but make sure you don't get caught yourself.
On the server side of things all of the ARK official servers have been updated with anti-cheating software BattlEye. To play on any official servers you will need the new executable ShooterGame\Binaries\ShooterGame_BE.exe. You don't need to worry about where to find that though as the Steam Launcher for the game has already been updated for it. If you want to use BattlEye for your own unofficial servers then you just need to add "-BattlEye" to your launch options.
BattlEye only currently has support for Windows ARK servers so if you have a Mac or Linux client then you won't be able to use BattlEye. This is something that the development team hope to rectify in the near future.
If you wish to read the full press release and learn a bit more about the Haementeria then you can also read the official ARK blog post.
If you are considering picking it up, Ark: Survival Evolved is currently 33% off on Steam during the Steam Lunar, or available as the early unlock for the Humble Monthly Bundle which will run you $12 for the month.
What do you think of the new creature? What about the new anti-cheating measure? What are your experiences with ARK? Share your thoughts in the comments below!